The Power of Insanity
by Kyndeyrn
Summary: After suffering a head injury, Harry loses his mind. Without his sanity is there still some way he can defeat the Dark Lord Voldemort?
1. Chapter 1

Rating: K-T

Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter do you really think I would be writing this lame story?

A/N: It's my first time at attempting to write fanfiction so please review and tell me if you like the story!

**Chapter 1**

Harry tottered unsteadily into King's Cross Station, a blank sort of grin pasted on to his features. He suddenly stumbled and fell flat on his face, apparently tripping over nothing.

"Are you ok?" called Hermione who had been walking a couple feet back with Ron.

"Yes, yes. I'm as chipper as a doorknob in mid November!" responded Harry in an airy voice as he leapt to his feet and continue to walk as if nothing had happened.

Ron gave Harry an odd look as Hermione said, "Oh dear, he hasn't been quite right in the head since his cousin hit him with that baseball bat over the summer."

"Not quite right in the head? He's bloody mental!" exclaimed Ron.

They watched as their friend staggered into the wall next to the magical barrier several times before managing to make it through. Following the young wizard, they found themselves standing on platform 9 ¾. Running across the platform, they managed to catch up with Harry who had ballet danced to the door of the train. They began to walk down the corridor and all was going quite smoothly until Harry decided to start singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" at the top of his lungs. Giving their fellow students apologetic looks; they hurried the musical wizard quickly down to a quiet compartment at the end of the train.

"HARRY ARE YOU BLOODY INSANE?" Ron bellowed as soon as the glass-panned door was firmly shut.

"Now Ron, don't be too hard on him..." Hermione began.

"Not to hard, not to hard! He was singing, singing Hermione!" Ron spluttered.

"You certainly are loud, aren't you?" asked Harry.

"Loud? You were...Oh I can't take this!" he yelled as the black-haired seventh year began to buzz rather abruptly. Crossing the small room he ferociously opened the door and ran smack into Draco Malfoy. "Out of my way!" he snarled and shoved through Malfoy to stalk down the corridor. Malfoy looked rather stunned, but dismissed Ron with a confused glance and continued into the compartment.

"Hello there!" Harry greeted him brightly. "Lovely weather isn't it?"

Malfoy was dumbstruck at being greeted so civilly by his arch-enemy. He simply stared at Harry, jaw slightly agape. It was Hermione who finally broke the silence. "What are you doing here Malfoy and where are Crabbe and Goyle?"

"Dead."


	2. Chapter 2

Rating: T

Warnings: OOC, Violence

Disclaimer: Squirrels rule!

**Chapter 2**

"Crabbe and Goyle are dead! How?" Hermione gasped, a look of horror spread over her face.

For the first time anyone could remember Malfoy did not gloat or smirk when he spoke to his arch-enemies. He simply bowed his silver head and responded in a monotone, "Over the summer. The Dark Lord killed them when their fathers failed on a raid."

Even the delusional Harry looked stunned at this news, though that may have been because he had been beating himself over the head with Hedwig's cage and only just had stopped. Hermione on the other hand looked shocked; she stood there, staring at Malfoy until after a moment her voice seemed to return and she said in a hoarse whisper, "I'm…I'm really sorry Draco."

"You are! Why? I…I thought you hated me!" he asked in a voice equally as soft.

"Loss is a terrible thing for anyone," she stated in a more normal tone. "But why have you told us this? I thought _you_ hated _us_?

"Well I did, but you see, my father was on that raid as well and he died while trying to complete it. I can never forgive the Dark Lord after that!" at this point, a burning hatred shown in Draco's eyes and he continued in a firmer voice, "Well I knew he was prophesized to kill the Dark Lord so I was hoping I could join forces with you, make a kind of truce so to speak."

"Well I suppose you can, but you may be a bit disappointed. You see after this summer, I don't think Harry is really in the position to go about defeating any dark lords."

"Oh my God! What has happened to him?" Draco half-yelled as Harry proceeded to climb underneath one of the seats, stick his head out at random intervals and yell 'peak-a-boo' rather loudly.

"Well, he had a bit of an accident over the holidays. His cousin hit him over the head with a baseball bat and he hasn't been quite himself lately"

"Can't he be helped with a spell or…or something?" Draco pleaded.

"I've tried every spell I can think of, nothing has worked." She replied glumly.

Suddenly there was a loud screeching sound and the train shuddered violently, causing the luggage in the upper compartments to rattle. "What in Heaven's name?" Yelled Hermione. Shouts and screams began to come from the front of the train, and there was the sound of running feet. The compartment door burst open and Neville ran in, panting.

"Ron fell out of the train," he gasped, "I think he's been hit!"

A/N: Thank you so very, very much for the reviews! They were helpful. Sorry about the short chapters, the next one will be longer I hope. Once again, review and tell me what you think!


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Weave a circle round him thrice, And close your eyes with holy dread, For he on honey-dew hath fed, And drunk the milk of Paradise.

**Chapter 3**

Within seconds a large crowd of people had assembled at the front of the train. Many had looks of revulsion on their faces as they stared at the grotesque sight lying on the tracks. Harry, Hermione and Draco pushed through the mass of students, gasping in horror at the sight that greeted them. Ron's carcass could no longer be recognized as a human body, it was simply a bloody, headless lump. Blood was splattered all over the tracks and the train's wheels were clogged with something that looked terribly like internal organs.

"Ewww! That's gross!" shouted Harry and covered his face with his hands.

"Harry, how can you be so cruel? He was your best friend!" Hermione cried as tears streamed down her face.

"Best friend? He wasn't my best friend. These are my best friends!" the delusional wizard explained as he pulled half a dozen crudely made finger puppets out of his pocket and began to reenact _Hamlet_ with them.

Draco shot an incredulous glance at Harry before walking over to comfort the grief-stricken witch. Hermione opened her mouth to say something, but at that precise moment there were five consecutive bangs as Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall, Flitwick, Snape and Sprout simultaneously popped out of the air. Dumbledore strode quickly over to the cadaver and bent down to examine it, when he straitened up he was paler than usual, but his voice was steady when he spoke.

"Minerva, I have lifted the wards around the school for the next half hour. Please create a Portkey and transport the students, I will return shortly."

"Yes, Headmaster." McGonagall replied in a slightly shaky tone, then took off her hat and muttered "_Portus_". She then barked to all the students, "Right, now come five at a time. No pushing, come on now!"

Harry, his finger puppets, Hermione and Draco grouped around the hat with Neville, Luna and Professor McGonagall. Five seconds later they disappeared and found themselves standing in the Entrance Hall.

"THAT WAS FUN!" shouted Harry with glee, "Let's do it again!"

"Mr. Potter, are you quite alright?" McGonagall exclaimed, alarmed.

"I'll explain later, Professor." Hermione said quickly and Draco nodded in agreement.

"Alright then, if you're sure." She commented, obviously unconvinced, "I'll just start transporting the other students." And with a crack she was gone. The four sane students marched silently into the Great Hall, attempting to tune out the odd noises the mad raven-haired wizard was somehow emitting.

"He sounds like a cat caught in a dryer." Luna commented airily once they had taken about five steps into the hall. Nobody responded to this odd statement and Luna shrugged, heading off to the Ravenclaw table. Draco also peeled of from the group to get to his own table where he sat, looking grim and forlorn. This left Neville and Hermione to usher Harry to a seat where he happily pulled out his puppets again, this time acting out _The Phantom of the Opera_. At first, Neville watched with enthusiastic enjoyment, even singing along at some parts then, realizing what he was doing, blushed and looked away hurriedly.

Slowly, the Great Hall began to fill as students entered (even the first years because, though it went against custom, it was thought best for them to hear Dumbledore's announcement.), all but the Slytherins with somber expressions on their faces. The cheerful start-of-term buzz of conversation was absent and a sad kind of silence hung over the room, broken only by Harry's talented finger puppets and the occasional sob. Finally, the teachers filed in and Hermione was surprised to see Tonks among their number. They took their seats and when the Hall's attention was focused on the Head Table, Dumbledore stood up and spoke, "As all of you know, a student was tragically taken from us this evening. Ron Weasley, a seventh year student of Gryffindor house was hit by the train-"

"Was squashed more like it!" chortled Harry, "It was brilliant, yet rather yucky…I almost tossed my biscuits!"

Dumbledore shot Harry a look that managed to be confused, startled and angry all at the same time before continuing. "But this horrible occurrence did not happen by accident; Ron was pushed out of the train, murdered." Gasps and stunned expressions could be seen all around the room along with surprised cries of "Who?" and "Why?" The old wizard waited until the silence resumed before going on, "If anyone has any information regarding this crime I would urge them to speak to me or any teacher. Now, though this is a night of sorrow, I have an announcement to make before the Sorting begins. I would like you all to welcome our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Tonks!" The applause were less then enthusiastic as most people's minds were still focused on Ron's death, but Tonks didn't seem to take it personally and gave a sort of half-smile at the students. "Now," boomed Dumbledore, "let the Sorting begin!"

Hermione didn't have much time to pay attention to the Sorting, for Harry was very excited at the prospect of a talking hat. He immediately leapt up and would have run over to converse with the magical headwear if Hermione had not thrown her arms around his middle and forcefully shoved him back into his seat. Then, when he realized the hat was singing, instantly wanted to join in. Unfortunately, he could not quite understand the Hat's lyrics, so settled for half-humming and half-shouting the first random words that come to his mind. This caused the Sorting Hat's song to be riddled with odd words such as toothpaste, coffee, llama, turnip and peregrine falcon. Hermione buried her head in her hands; this was _not _turning out to be an enjoyable day.

A/N: Yay! I got to write a fairly bloody scene, those are always fun… Well, the chapter was about as long as my previous two put together and then some, so that's a good thing. Once again, thanks for the reviews and I hope you feel like writing more!

Note on disclaimer: The disclaimer is from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem, Kubla Kahn and I really like the poem so I just felt like putting this in…


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Sleep is good every once in a while…

**Chapter 4**

Dinner was a slow and stressful process for Hermione. She didn't eat anything at all and this time it wasn't because of S.P.E.W., but because Harry's newfound amusement in activities that tended to cause humiliating situations. She stopped him from throwing at least half a dozen baked potatoes across the Great Hall, prevented him from dunking Neville in a bowl of soup and half-tackled him before he could start sticking the peppermint humbugs up his nose, and this was only halfway through the second course. All through the eventful meal she noticed Draco shooting her apologetic glances in her direction. _Quite a lot of help feeling sorry for me is going to do!_ She thought bitterly, but smiled back at him none the less.

Finally, at long last, the dinner from Hell ended. Hermione breathed a sigh of relief at Dumbledore's long awaited order for all students to head to bed. She got up and followed the crowd that was moving towards the door, Harry docilely followed, juggling some rock he had found God only knows where.

Draco caught up with them at the door and spoke, "I'm sorry I couldn't help at dinner, I was watching you-"

"I noticed." Hermione interrupted wryly.

"Yes, well, it would seem rather odd if I, your supposed mortal enemy, just got up and traipsed across the Hall to take away a potato from the one who is supposed to save us all, but is now too insane to tie his own shoelaces." At this point they both instinctively looked at Harry's feet only to see his trainers tied with two perfect bows.

"You know, mate, that's not very nice. I can to tie my own shoes thank you very much!" Harry stated proudly.

"Yes well, I suppose you can." He said to the shoe-talented Harry before turning back to Hermione and saying, "You know what I mean."

"I suppose." She admitted.

"Well, I didn't come to stand around and talk about Harry's apparently endless talents, Dumbledore sent me. He wants you and the lunatic to report up to the hospital wing so we can try to figure out what's wrong with him."

"Brilliant! Maybe they can take him off my hands." At this prospect, Hermione looked gleeful enough to fly.

No one talked much on the way up to the hospital wing. Draco was staring at Harry, who was now juggling six rocks in two intertwining circles, with a look half-way between amazement and despair. Hermione, on the other hand, did not appear to be looking at anything or thinking about anything for that matter. She simply looked dead tired.

Soon they found themselves at the hospital wing and so, without a word, went inside. They were greeted by Dumbledore and Madam Pomfrey, the latter of whom immediately rushed over to examine Harry.

"What exactly happened to him?" she questioned sharply.

"Over the summer his cousin assaulted him with a baseball bat, beating him over the head several times in rapid succession." Hermione responded in a dull tone.

"I see, I see. I'll just run a couple of tests on him and we'll see what's wrong." She said and immediately began the tests. She did everything from stick a long bronze tube in his ear to using a strange blue-silver object to poke him in apparently random places on his head. "Just one more test." She stated before pointing her wand at him and muttering something that sent a bright purple light out of the end of her wand. Then something odd happened, the spell simply vanished when it hit what seemed to be an invisible barrier surrounding Harry. "Just what I thought," she murmured then said to everyone present, "It seems that he is impervious to magic."

A/N: Short chapter, sorry. I've been busy with my account on fictionpress and it took me a while to write this chapter. Next week is the last week in the quarter so I'll be rather busy with last-minute school work and probably won't get another chapter up until next weekend or later. Thanks to those who reviewed and please keep reviewing!


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Coffee, it's like liquid energy!

**Chapter 5**

"So, you mean he isn't affected by magic?" Draco said in an amazed voice, breaking the stunned silence that filled the room.

"Precisely." Replied Madam Pomfrey briskly.

"But how? I've never heard of such a thing!" asked Hermione, still wide-eyed.

"I'm not completely positive, but I believe it happened because of the head injury he received. It effected the magical part of his brain, causing it to be thrown of balance, and somehow creating a barrier that can block any form of magic used against him; spells, potions, anything!" the nurse explained, "Also, I believe he may acquire new skills, things he's never been able to do before, once again because of the unbalance of magical power."

"That could prove useful." Draco stated and Hermione nodded in agreement.

"But what about his sanity?" Dumbledore asked, obviously concerned, "Will he ever mentally return to normal?"

"I'm afraid not, but though his current state may seem a bit er… unbalanced, it could have been much worse." She glanced quickly at Harry who appears to be counting and naming all the bricks in the room's wall, then turned back to the group, a worried look on her face. "Okay, well he could have been a little worse. After all, he still interacts with people and kept abilities such as eating and talking."

"But he doesn't recognize anyone or anything!" Hermione cried out tearfully, "When Ron was hit he didn't seem to care at all!"

Madame Pomfrey frowned slightly, "I don't know why that is, truth be told, I've never even heard of something like this ever occurring before. I'll have to do more research on the subject."

"Well Poppy, it's been a long, trying day, and I believe that it is time for all of us to retire." Dumbledore stated in a seemingly jovial voice, "Would it be alright if Mr. Potter stayed here for the night? I believe his fellow Gryffindors would appreciate it very much. We can settle what to do about his classes in the morning."

"Yes, that should be just fine." Agreed the medical witch and smiled at the look of bliss that had begun to creep over Hermione's face. "Right then, off to bed, you two." She stated firmly.

Hermione and Draco both said their goodbyes then headed out the door, both very relieved to be away from the mentally disturbed wizard. Few comments passed between the two seventh years as they walked back to their common rooms, for each was absorbed in their own thoughts. They paused when they reached the entrance to the dungeons, where their ways parted.

There was a moment of somewhat awkward silence before Hermione spoke, "Thank you for that change of heart you had today. It seems I've lost both my best friends now, and it's rather nice to have someone I can count on."

Draco blushed, unused to such compliments, and muttered something incoherent before descending the steps to the dungeon. Hermione gave one last look at his receding figure before turning to make her way up to Gryffindor tower.

The next morning dawned bright and early and Hermione woke with a powerful hunger, due to the fact that she had not eaten the night before. Yawning (she had not slept well last night), she went down several staircases and entered the Great Hall. She found a seat between Neville and the still teary-eyed Ginny who immediately began questioning her about Harry's condition. She related the story to them while pouring herself a cup of rather strong coffee and thought that today might prove to be alright after all. This thought was blasted from her mind as she spotted a distraught Professor McGonagall leading an opera-singing Harry toward her. It was plain that the young wizard's voice was not meant for singing opera as several people had covered their ears, faces screwed up at the painful noise.

"Oh Harry, do shut up!" yelled Hermione as they approached. Harry stopped singing, but shot Hermione an angry glare and proceeded to mutter about people who did not appreciate true art.

"Thank you, Ms. Granger." The stressed teacher said with a grateful look, "That was beginning to get annoying. Now then, the headmaster and I have decided that Mr. Potter should continue with his classes as usual, and because you proved yourselves capable yesterday, we are asking you and Mr. Malfoy to keep an eye out for him."

In this brief statement, Hermione's face was replaced with a mask of horror. "But, but Professor-" she stammered.

"Now, now I'm sure you both will do fine." She said in a voice that radiated with false encouragement, then quickly left the table before the dumb-struck witch could mutter another word.

"Hermione, I'll take that coffee if you're not going to drink it, it's still hot." Neville offered, completely oblivious to what had just passed between her and the Professor. Hermione's head hit the table with a loud thunk; it was going to be a long year.

A/N: Hehe, I like torturing Hermione! I hope to update again this week, but I'm going to visit my grandparents so I'm not sure if that's going to happen. Now, why don't you click that little button on the bottom, left hand corner of your screen, write a couple words, and make me very, very happy!


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: Space, the final frontier…

**Chapter 6**

The first class of the day was Care of Magical Creatures and for the first time she could remember, Hermione was glad to share a class with the Slytherins. Because of this, she could just dump Harry with Draco and actually concentrate on the class without being forced to knock the deranged wizard unconscious in order to keep him from doing odd things to the pretty little critters. As Hermione looked down her class list she realized that every class she had today was either with the Slytherins or a class that Harry wasn't taking. Maybe today wouldn't be so bad after all.

Draco groaned as he scanned his schedule; every class he had today contained Gryffindors. How could that blasted McGonagall possibly think that he would happily baby-sit Harry? They had been mortal foes until just yesterday. And to make it worse, he would be with that mudblood. No, he chided himself, her name was Hermione and she really wasn't that bad. And before the more Slytherin part of his mind could retaliate, he hurried across the hall to catch up with the two Gryffindors.

Hermione saw a figure walking quickly across the grounds toward them, and slowed so Draco could catch up.

"Good morning." She greeted him with a smile.

"I guess." He responded looking rather downcast. "I just can't believe that they left him with us. I mean honestly, he doesn't belong here. Why don't they just send him to St. Mungo's or something?"

Hermione thought for a moment and then responded slowly, "I suppose they still believe he can defeat Voldemort, even in his current state, and want him to at least try to complete his magical education."

Draco nodded thoughtfully and looked about to reply, but before he could open his mouth to speak, Harry chimed in, "Voldemort, hehe, that's a funny word." He then proceeded to run around in circles screaming 'Voldemort' at the top of his lungs.

"Quick, stop him!" Draco shouted, "If someone hears him they'll panic!" He then drew his wand and yelled "_silencio" _only to watch the spell melt before it reached Harry. "Shit," he swore, "his magical barrier!"

"Here, let me solve this." Hermione said soothingly and walked over to Harry. "Harry, if you be a good little mental wizard and stay quiet, I'll give you a cookie!"

"A cookie? Oh boy!" Harry shouted with glee and immediately shut up.

"Much better." Said Hermione approvingly and handed Harry a chocolate chip cookie.

"Wow, never even thought of that!" Draco stated in awe.

Hermione just smiled and they continued walking. When they reached Hagrid's cabin they found most of the class already assembled. As usual, the Gryffindors and the Slytherins were stood in two separate groups, interacting only when a member from one party felt the need to throw an insult at the other faction. As they arrived and turned to join their own houses, Hermione asked, "Look, could you take Harry for today? I mean, you have classes with him all day, so it only makes sense" And before Draco could respond, Hermione gave a quick command to his new charge and departed rather quickly to the Gryffindor cluster.

Draco quickly shut his gaping mouth; he had been given no chance to argue back, none at all! He sighed in a resigned sort of way and muttered for Harry to follow him. He started toward the knot of Slytherins, but then remembered who he was in the company of. He figured that his housemates wouldn't take too kindly to the fact that he was now the friend, well, more like the keeper, of their most hated foe. He also knew that the Gryffindors hated him as well, so with no where to go, he settled in a spot equidistant from the two groups. The next few minutes he spent amusing himself by watching Harry attempt to catch airborne insects in his mouth. Apparently he believed they looked like flying chocolate chips.

Hagrid arrived shortly after Harry had eaten his fifth "chocolate chip". Hagrid stared at him queerly for a second before asking Draco, "Whas' the matter wi' him? Were 'is potatoes bad at breakfast or summat?" Draco was about to reply irritably when the half-giant professor slapped himself in the forehead with the air of someone who has quickly remembered something and exclaimed, "Oh yeah, the Headmaster tol' me this mornin'." He then went on to mutter darkly about "ruddy muggle sports" until he noticed the class waiting for him to begin.

Blushing slightly, he addressed the students in his booming voice, "Righ' I thought we might jus' do a bit of review today, yeh know, to see what yeh all remember from last year." At this statement relieved sighs resounded through the seventh years. They would all be keeping their limbs today. "Alrigh' then, lets start wi' sommat easy: Who can tell me wha' color an adolescent unicorn is?" As usual, Hermione's hand shot up as well as several of the other girls' but, oddly enough, it was Harry's hand that reached the air before all the others.

Hagrid scratched his head in confusion before calling on him. Harry quickly whipped out one of his trust finger puppets (this one looked suspiciously like Legolas) and said in a squeaky voice, "They're white!"

Hagrid stared at him, stunned, then said, "Very good, Harry! Ten points teh' Gryffindor!" He then proceeded to ask another question (one about knarls). Once again, it was Harry's hand that penetrated the air first, and once again he answered the question correctly (this time with the help of Aragorn). And so it went on like this, until the insanely knowledgeable wizard had earned one hundred points for his house and Hagrid was forced to call on someone else to be fair.

"Wow! That was brilliant Harry!" Hermione exclaimed as they were walking across the grounds to their next class: Transfiguration.

"Yeah, it was amazing!" agreed Draco, "Where did you learn all that?"

"My friends told me!" said Harry in a rather creepy voice as he waved the finger puppets in front of their faces.

"Your friends, right…" said Hermione in an obviously not-understanding voice. Draco snickered and Hermione glared at him. Not much more was said on the rest of the trip.

Transfiguration passed in much the same way as Care of Magical Creatures, with Harry astounding the class by answering all the questions with ease. In fact, the rest of the day was like this and by dinner the whole school was aware that Harry Potter was now the smartest, though oddest, student in the castle.

A/N: Sorry, that took so long… I got caught up in other things. Oh well! I hope you enjoyed the chapter and show it by reviewing! Heck, review even if you didn't enjoy the chapter!


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: Tomorrow, tomorrow I love Ya tomorrow your always a day away.

**Chapter 7**

Sunlight crept softly into the girls' dormitory, awakening Hermione in the process. She stretched, yawned, and then grimaced, today was her day to look after Harry. She made her way downstairs and found a seat at the Gryffindor table, and was joined several minutes later by Harry who had been deposited rather quickly by an irate Professor McGonagall. Hermione began what was becoming her usual morning routine of taking any and all objects away from Harry as soon as they came into his no doubt amusing, yet dangerous grasp. Unfortunately, about half way through breakfast Hermione began to stare off into space and became completely oblivious to everything around her. Several seconds later she was jerked back into reality with alarming speed by what sounded like a gerbil getting its tail cut off. Her head swiveled around and it became clear that it was The-Boy-That-Never-Failed-To-Cause-Chaos-In-An-Interesting-Manner that was creating the noise. Apparently, he had tried to pour coffee with his feet, and had succeeded in spilling the scalding beverage all over himself. Thinking quickly, Hermione pulled out her wand and evaporated the steaming liquid with a complex spell, and then turned to Harry. He was still howling in pain because of the blistering burns that covered his legs from the knees down. She groaned, and then prodded his calves with her wand and new skin started to replace the old, red flesh.

"What a simply _excellent _way to start the mourning." She growled under her breath as the last of Harry's skin was mended. She turned her attention away from him to glance at her schedule. "Oh good, Defense Against the Dark Arts. Crap! It's with the Hufflepuffs; I can't dump Harry with Draco." She looked back to Harry and found him loudly reenacting his own coffee incident with those ever present finger puppets of his. Sighing, she grabbed the sleeve of his robe, which happened to be on backwards, and dragged him from the Hall.

Because of their immediate departure, Hermione and her delusional charge arrived at the classroom ten minutes early. Hermione poked her head through the door to check if there was a teacher present and jumped in surprise as she saw Tonks sitting behind the desk. She then remembered the chaotic night of the Welcome Feast and how she had seen Tonks at the Head Table. Since that evening she had not even glanced at the table, for she had been to busy protecting her fellow students from Harry's spur of the moment ideas, nor had she spoken to any of her peers who had attended the class. She pushed the door open the rest of the way and strode inside, Harry skipping in behind her.

Tonks looked up from the papers on her desk and grinned as she greeted them, "Wotcher, Harry, Hermione."

"Hello Tonks, er, I mean Professor." Hermione said as Harry proceeded to do a back flip onto a nearby desk and act like a seal.

"Who's got him under the Imperius Curse?" The pink-haired witch asked, jabbing her thumb in Harry's direction.

"His cousin beat him over the head with a baseball bat," Hermione reeled off dully, "he is insane and impervious to magic."

"A baseball bat, eh? Now how'd that happen?"

Hermione was about to respond when she realized that she didn't know the entirety of the attack on Harry so she said," I don't know exactly. Harry what did happen when you, er, got a bang bang on the noggin." She asked using the words Harry had used to first describe the occurrence.

Harry thought for a moment then started talking rather fast in a cheerful tone, "I was walking in a park, a very very pretty park; lots and lots of birdies and squirrlies and flowers, yes very very pretty. Then, BAM, a rock came flying through the air and went bang bang on my noggin, didn't even say sorry, just bang bang. Then lots of pretty stars started frolicking all around me. Very pretty! I stared and stared at them, very sparkly, very nice. I was so busy looking at the sparklies that I didn't notice the fat boy come over with a big stick. More bang bang. The sparkly stars go away and everything goes black, like burnt potato black, only blacker. Then everything goes colorfully light again and I was very very happy, 'cause that's when I met all my friends. Do you want to meet them?"

Though Hermione was shaking her head violently and frantically mouthing 'no' behind Harry's back, Tonks couldn't let down the hopeful look on Harry's slightly dazed face so she replied, "Of course, Harry. I'd love to meet your friends."

Harry beamed in delight as he dug a hand into the pocket of his robe and began to scoop out his finger puppets. Bouncing over to a nearby desk, he began to line them up. He continued pulling out more and more of his inanimate friends from pockets concealed all over his person until the desk was filled up, but this didn't stop the wizard, he simply moved on to the next desk. When the surfaces of five of the desks were no longer visible the cardboard creations finally stopped emerging from Harry's bottomless pockets.

"Well here they are! Do ya like 'em?" He asked gleefully. Tonks could only nod numbly in reply. Suddenly, the wizard leaned in close to a puppet that looked oddly like a leprechaun, and then straitened up again before addressing the two witches, "He says that space is hotter than potatoes."

Tonks couldn't think of anything to say to this random, seemingly nonsensical statement so she settled with a question. "Harry, how'd you fit all your, um, _friends_ into your pockets?"

"With this little stick I found." He said, pulling his wand from his robes, "I poke it at things and they do weird stuff." To demonstrate he walked over to a chair and prodded it with the wooden stick, instantly turning it into a monitor lizard. He poked the snarling reptile and watched as it transformed into a chocolate chip which he promptly devoured.

Tonks conjured up a new chair and said out of a corner of her mouth to Hermione, "Who came up with the bright idea of giving him a wand? He's barking mad!"

"None of us realized he still had it! And besides, Dumbledore wants him to continue his magical training on the off-chance that he can still defeat Voldemort."

Tonks rolled her eyes at this statement and raised her voice, addressing the students that were now entering the classroom, "Everyone find a seat. Harry if you could, er, please ask your friends to move."

"Right-o" Harry responded and scooped the figures back into his magically enlarged pockets. Some students stared at him in confusion while others simply shook their heads and found a seat.

Once all the desks had been taken and the noise of those rummaging through their materials had died down Tonks spoke to the class, "I am Professor Tonks and as some of know, I am an Auror for the Ministry of Magic. So, this year I've been assigned a position here at Hogwarts. You see, they think extra security is needed because Voldemort is gathering more troops so here I am. Now today I thought we'd just do a bit of practical review on defense spells, so wands out."

Harry proved to be just as good at spells as he was at answering questions and because Defense Against the Dark Arts was naturally his best class, he outshone the rest of the students by far. Tonks' previous puzzlement at the odd wizard was replaced by pride as the lesson went on and, by the end; even she thought that Harry had a chance against Voldemort.

The rest of the day mimicked the day before with the insane, though talented, wizard excelling at everything he did. He even managed to be outstanding at Potions, for Snape no longer intimidated, or even distracted him. Unfortunately, now Harry had realized that wands could be used for things other than simply poking, and if words were said when the wand was in use, who knows what could happen. Hermione spent yet another meal going hungry because she was constantly trying to get the magical wooden rod away from Harry while, at the same time, casting numerous counter-spells to stop the disasters before they had a chance to start. And so she went to bed listing to Harry's magnified voice sing, or rather bellow, "Tomorrow" down in the common room, and she wondered how she would survive the rest of the year.

A/N: Well, I can't think of much to say so I guess I'll apologize for the disclaimer. That has got to be one of the most annoying songs on earth, but it's been going through my head for the past two or three weeks. Stupid school musical…


	8. Chapter 8

In the way of warnings this chapter has a character death and gasp OOC.

Disclaimer:YAY! NO SCHOOL, NO SCHOOL! What do I do now…?

**Chapter 8**

The days passed and Hogwarts settled into a form of normality. Harry's exceptional talent simply became part of life as did his insanity. Even Hermione and Draco were becoming used to taking care of the "gifted" wizard, though Hermione had begun to have rather odd dreams involving finger puppets. And so, before they knew it, Halloween was upon them. Hermione and Draco did not plan on attending the feast because the idea of Harry at an event that supported people wearing strange garments and playing odd music sent shivers of terror down their spines. Instead they planned on taking Harry to the farthest place as possible from the Great Hall which happened to be the Astronomy Tower. So at a quarter to eight they headed up to the highest, and most-likely- to-fall-from-and-be-squished-into-a-yucky-mess-when-colliding-with-the-ground place at Hogwarts.

"Man, it's cold up here!" said Draco, shivering, as they walked up the last staircase and into the cold night air.

"Yep." Responded Hermione through clenched teeth as she dragged Harry up the steps. He had just discovered a previously nonexistent fear of heights and Hermione was having difficulties getting him to the top of the tower.

Suddenly, Draco smirked rather evilly and said, "Hey, I have an idea. Why don't we just let him run around up here? Maybe he'll fall off the side and then BAM, end of all our problems!" he thought for a second then said, "Well more like SPLAT, end of all our problems."

Hermione rolled her eyes at this rather violent solution, but surprisingly let go of Harry's arm never the less. As soon as she let go, Harry smiled happily and said, "Ah, I was just fooling you silly-heads! I love heights!" As if to prove himself he sprinted to the edge of the tower and began to do a dance routine from West Side Story. The two other students sat down and watched. Even though these odd displays of talent were no longer shocking, they were still rather entertaining.

About ten minutes into the "show" a familiar figure appeared at the doorway, waving cheerfully, "'Ello! Watcha doin' up 'ere in the cold?"

"Hello Hagrid," greeted Hermione, "We didn't think it would be the brightest idea to take Harry to the feast, so here we are. Do you want to watch the _show _with us?" she said, gesturing to Harry, "He's really quite good."

"Don' mind if I do." Said the half-giant, walking over to stand in a precarious position along the tower's precipice. It was obvious that he enjoyed the performance by the way he did a kind of dance-in-place. This went on for about half an hour. Harry had just done a spectacular flying leap and Hagrid had tried to imitate it. He landed with a loud thump that got Harry's attention and the performer ran over to greet his newest audience member.

Harry bounced over and said in a sing-song voice, "Poke!" He followed this exclamation by extending his finger and prodding the "big, funny man". Unfortunately, his imitation of Harry's leap had put Hagrid off balance and as he happened to be situated at the most dangerous place on the tower, the poke was not a very good thing. Time seemed to stand still as Hagrid fought hopelessly to remain steady, then, his eyes grew wide and his enormous bulk fell over the edge. The occupants of the tower top waited in a stunned silence for the sickening thump that was sure to follow. Sure enough, a split second later a crash sounded throughout the Hogwarts grounds that made Hermione and Draco flinch.

They continued to sit in shock for a moment until Draco regained the ability to speak, "Look, we better get out of here or we'll be blamed. No one knows were up here and we could just go to the library or something and say we were there the whole time."

Hermione nodded dumbly, still unable to speak, then grabbed Harry's arm and steered him down the stairs and to the library with Draco following behind. They made it into the library with hardly a noise, then went to the very back and began to discuss what had happened. Hermione was still in shock, though grief hadn't kicked in yet, so it was Draco who led the discussion. He turned to Harry and spoke, "Do not tell anyone we were up on the Astronomy Tower, if anyone asks we were in the library the whole time, okay?"

Harry shook his head and wagged his finger back and forth, "No, no, no, that's lying and lying is bad. Very bad."

Draco sighed and said, "In this case lying is good."

"Lying is good?"

"No lying is bad, but right now lying is good."

Harry looked utterly confused and Draco tried to clarify things, "Look, lying is bad, but if you tell people that we were in the library it is good, okay? And if you tell people this I'll give you a cookie or something."

Harry nodded happily at the prospect of a cookie and remained silent. Draco next turned to Hermione, "I know he was your friend, but we have to act like we don't know any of this happened until someone informs us, alright?"

The witch nodded then curiously asked Harry, "Why did you poke him?"

"Poke who? Oh, the big funny man, someone told me to!"

"What?" exclaimed Draco, "Who? Where were they, it was only us up on the tower."

Harry shook his head, "Nope. Somebody was hiding near the wall. They told me to poke him, so I did!"

"Who was? Did you see them?"

"I dunno who it was; it was too dark to tell. Can I have a cookie now?"

Draco absentmindedly conjured a cookie and gave it to Harry, then asked the still shocked witch beside him, "Do you think it was the same person who pushed Weasly out of the train?"

The question seemed to jump-start Hermione's mind and she said thoughtfully, "You know, that's rather likely."

"But who would want to kill off these people?"

Hermione looked at him as though he were stupid and said sarcastically, "Yeah, I really wonder who would want to kill off the people that usually guard Harry so they can get a better shot at him. And you claim to be a Slytherin!"

"Oh duh, Voldemort. Right well that means there's someone working for him in the castle since it's been proven five-billion times that he can't get in on his own."

"Yep, and that means its most likely a Slytherin, since all their, well your, parents are Death Eaters. So guess what your job is!" She said with an annoyingly enthusiastic tone.

"I'll start interrogating them all at once." Said Draco dully, "It'll be kind of hard since I don't have as much power over them as I used to, but yeah, I'll try."

"Good!" said Hermione and at that precise moment grief took hold of her and she burst into tears. Draco just sat there, awkwardly patting her on the back and wondering how on Earth he had managed to get himself into all of this.

A/N: Yeah I know, this chapter took FOREVER, but now I'm out of school and should be able to write a bit more, that is if my life doesn't become more dramatic than it already is (If you're weird and really want to know more about my chaotic life, read Neon Leprechaun's A Hogwarts Soap Opera). Anyway, I need some advise on this story. When you review (hint, hint) could you please tell me if you think I should write some Draco/Hermione romance into this because I'm not sure if that's the way it's going or not… Ok Dokay, that's about it. Bye bye!


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I was doing gymnastics when I saw a scary bee, I quickly put on my fuzzy pink slippers and ran to the nearest scooter, I had only managed to go about two inches when I tripped over a shadow. And that's how I broke off half of both my front teeth.

A week later found Hermione and Draco sitting in the exact same place in the library with Harry happily munching on yet another cookie nearby. Dusty sunlight shown down on them as Hermione, head clutched in hands, asked for what must have been the 10,412th time, "Now are you sure you interviewed _everyone_ in Slytherin?"

"Everyone." He responded dully, "down to the stupid little first year that shot spit-balls at me through the entire conference!"

"And how do you know they weren't lying?" she shot back shrewdly.

"Legilimens."

"Ah, yes. I forgot, you would know things like that."

Draco grinned in response and asked, "Well, have investigated in any of the other houses, or just Gryffindor for that matter?"

"O _yes_," she answered sarcastically, "because I'm _so _sure a Gryffindor would want to kill off Ron and Hagrid!"

"Well they _could_." He muttered unconvincingly.

She quashed his feeble protest with a skeptic look, "No, I just know it's a Slytherin, we went over the whole "everybody in your house has Death Eater parents" discussion already.

"Well, people in _other_ houses could have parents working for Voldemort." Drat, yet another pathetic objection crushed by Hermione's "that's a stupid idea and you know it" look.

Harry had finished his cookie and begun stacking books vertically to form a large tower. Hermione watched him idly, no longer worried by the consequences his behavior. She then said thoughtfully, "You know, I wonder if Voldemort has any knowledge of Harry's, erm, _condition_."

"Well he probably knows about the insanity part, and maybe even the special talents, but I doubt he knows about Harry's invincibility to magic. I mean only a few of us know about that." This was true as they hadn't been to keen to spread this little fact around in case there was a need for it later. It was a secret weapon, so to speak.

Hermione twirled her quill between her fingers, a habit she had picked up from Draco, "You think Voldemort will attempt attack Harry at the end of this year as usual?"

"Probably." They sat there in silence for a bit longer for neither could think of anything left to discuss. The expanse of quiet grew longer and more awkward with each passing moment until it became unbearable, so, still puzzled, the two students said their farewells and departed.

As the days dragged on Hermione rapidly became obsessed over who the culprit could possibly be. At first it was understandable for the victims had been two of her best friends, but when she began to ditch class simply to go to empty classrooms and pace Draco started to worry. And so, one day during potions (the third class in a row that she had not attended) he decided to find her and possibly talk some sense into her.

"Hey Potter!" he hissed, jabbing his partner in the ribs to get his attention.

Harry, thinking it was some new game, poked him back in quite the painful manner. Draco stifled a yell. Still glaring at Harry and rubbing his side he continued as if there hadn't been an interruption, "Do you have that map with you, you know, the one that shows all the people in the castle?"

Harry nodded happily and handed over the Marauder's Map. "Well that's convenient." Thought Draco. "Okay Potter, behave while I'm gone."

"Here-way re-hay ou-yay oing-gay?" asked Harry in pig Latin.

Draco looked confused for a second, then got the gist of what he had been asked, "Oh, uh, bathroom." He responded. For some reason Harry didn't look the least bit confused as to why someone would need a magical map with them while going to the restroom. Instead he simply nodded sagely and went back to his potion (the hardest one in the book, for he had completed the class assignment ages ago).

"Mr. Malfoy?" Snape questioned at Draco's raised hand.

"Sir, could I please use the restroom?"

Snape glared at him for a moment (he hadn't been favoring Draco as much since he found out that he had become friends with Harry and Hermione), but just nodded and moved on.

Draco sprinted out of the classroom to the laughter of his fellow students. He followed the map up a couple flights of stairs and into a nearly empty classroom, nearly empty except for Hermione. She jerked out of her trance as he entered the room. "Oh, hello Draco. What are you doing here?"

"Trying to find out why you're skiving class to sit in an empty classroom. I mean, I know they were your friends and all, but don't you think this is a bit extreme?"

Hermione gave him a perplexed look for a moment before the light of understanding dawned in her eyes, "Oh, Ron and Hagrid, no I've given up on that problem for the moment." Draco gaped at her; it wasn't like Hermione to give up on a problem so easily, especially one of such magnitude. "No, you see, Mrs. Weasley invited Harry and me to the Burrow for the Christmas Holidays and I was wondering how to ask her to let you come along as well. That is if you want to, I know your families have been mortal enemies for the past few centuries."

"No, no that would be lovely, I-"

But Hermione threw up her hand, effectively cutting him off. Her eyes narrowed to dangerous slits, "Did you leave Harry unattended in a classroom full of potential accidental victims?"

"That's a bit harsh, I mean they _are_ seventh year students and Snape is in there too…" But Hermione had already bolted out of the classroom. Cursing, Draco followed.

When they reached the classroom Draco had to bite his lip to keep from laughing. It appeared that Harry had encased the class, Snape and all, up to their necks in a giant mound of magical chocolate-chip cookie dough. With a quick wave of her wand, Hermione dispersed the goop and rounded on Harry. "What _on earth_ compelled you to do this?" She yelled, gesturing to the rather dazed and soggy students picking themselves up off the floor.

"A nice little voice told me to!" responded Harry, picking up and devouring stray bits of cookie dough off the floor.

"A voice, oh ha ha, very funny I'm sure some invisible person just came up to you and, wait a second…invisible! Harry, did you see the person who was talking to you?"

"Nope!"

The three of them dashed upstairs to Harry's trunk and, sure enough, his invisibility cloak was missing.

A/N: Sorry, for the wait. I went on a ten day camping trip with my family. Roswell, NM must be the strangest place on earth…and in space (yay for those of you who get the lame joke). Anyway, I got rather mixed opinions on the Hermione/Draco thing…so why don't you all review a whole lot more so I can get a good range of them. Oh, and about the disclaimer, sometimes it's best just not to ask…


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I'd say my band teacher is from another planet, but that would be insulting the aliens.

**Chapter 10**

"Hehe, my face tingles!"

"Well Harry, that's probably due to the fact that you keep using your tongue to complete an electrical circuit."

Harry shrugged and continued to touch his tongue to the wire that was protruding out of one of Mr. Weasley's many electrical sockets. Hermione rolled her eyes and turned back to Draco who was sitting rather stiffly in one of the wooden chairs that surrounded the table at the Burrow, his eyes darting back and forth, "Honestly Draco, would you please relax? There is no one home and if there were they wouldn't attack you!"

"You can never be to sure!" the blonde Slytherin protested.

Hermione sighed and leaned back in her chair. They had been at the Weasley's residence for four days now and Draco had acted like this the entire time. At first, she had been sympathetic, after all it would be hard to sleep in a house owned and surrounded by your former enemies, but after the Weasleys had shown that there were no hard feelings on their side, she had begun to get fed up with him. But Draco's attitude wasn't the only thing that had her patience worn to the quick. Ever since they had arrived at the Burrow Mrs. Weasley had been giving her odd smiles and insisting at every meal time that Hermione sit next to Draco and, not only that, but quite frequently she would take the rest of the group on long outings (turning a deaf ear on the numerous protests) and leave Hermione, Draco and sometimes, like now, Harry alone. Not that she regretted inviting Draco, she just wished Mrs. Weasley would stop being so bloody romantic about the whole ordeal. A loud thump jerked her back to reality. It seemed as though Harry had passed out.

"Finally!" Draco exclaimed and Hermione raised a questioning eyebrow. Draco shrugged, "The constant zapping noise was getting to me."

"Ah."

A fly buzzed on the windowsill making the obvious silence more, well, silent. They had already discussed and agreed on the fact that whoever had stolen the Invisibility Cloak was probably the same person who was responsible for the murders and there wasn't much left to discuss as they weren't any closer to figuring out who the culprit actually was.

Draco began drumming his fingers on the table and Hermione felt compelled to break the silence, "So, about Quidditch…"

"You don't know anything about Quidditch…"

"Not true, I know what a Quaffle is!" Draco appeared to have taken this statement as a challenge of sorts and he proceeded to ask her a very long and complex question that contained very Quidditchy sounding words. Fortunately, she was saved the embarrassment of answering, or rather, the lack of answering by the sounds of the Weasley's arriving home. "Lets go see them, shall we?" she asked rather hastily and excited the room.

"Hello, everyone! How was your trip?" she asked with an attempt at a cheerful tone which probably made her sound like one who has attempted to strangle themselves on numerous occasions.

Mrs. Weasley looked at her strangely for a moment before answering, "Splendid, splendid! And how was yours and Draco's time? Hmm?" She asked with that revolting smile and actually had the nerve to wink.

Hermione grimaced, "Uh…great." But she wasn't sure if the red-haired woman had heard her response for at that moment they had stepped into the kitchen, Harry still sprawled across the floor.

Mrs. Weasley rushed over to the black-haired boy's limp form and cried out, "My word, what happened?"

"Harry decided to try a muggle science experiment." answered Draco wryly before tensing up like a spring once more.

The witch's gaze then swept over the socket, wire still sticking out and put two and two together, "Ah, I see. Well I'll just _Ennervate_!" She stared on in shock as her revival spell had no effect on the unconscious wizard. "Good Lord! He's dead!"

"No, Mrs. Weasley," Hermione explained calmly, ignoring the exaggerated jump to conclusions, "You see, when Harry got hit on the head, along with insanity he also got the defense of being impervious to magic.

"Cool!" said Fred and George in the background and immediately began firing random spells of questionable legality at Harry.

"Now boys, don't be immature." lectured Mr. Weasley, but Hermione noticed that his wand was poking out from behind his back.

"Well, I think Harry needs some rest." Called out Hermione, "Draco help me carry him." The ferret-like blonde scurried over and both students quickly left the room, Harry in tow.

"Has the whole bloody family gone mad?" He shouted once they were out of ear-shot.

"Now, Draco, don't be too harsh. Losing Ron was hard for them."

"Yes, but firing off potentially harmful spells at an unarmed wizard?"

"You know how odd that sounds coming from you? And besides, I wouldn't call an immunity to magic 'unarmed' exactly."

"You're just standing up for them because they're your friends!" he accused.

"Well yes, that's generally what friends do for each other." They finished dragging the lifeless wizard upstairs and dumped him on the bed that used to be Ron's without another word.

The rest of the holidays passed rather uneventfully, that is if you can call the fact that whenever Harry came into view whichever Weasleys happened to be around pulled out their wands and discharged random spells. Unfortunately, Harry began to think this was some great game and started issuing his own spells in return. Because of this, most of the Weasleys had to be treated for minor injuries. The oddest of these by far would have had to been the time that no less than seven squirrels popped out of Fred's head. And so, to prevent more of these occurrences, Hermione and Harry spent the rest of the vacation outside mostly with Draco tagging along for now he was even more terrified of the family than usual.

At long last the day came that they were to return to Hogwarts and so, after many goodbyes and thanks, the three of them hurriedly flooed out of the Burrow and into Professor McGonagall's office. They stepped out of the room and into the hallway where they met Ginny. (She had decided to remain at Hogwarts over the holidays in an attempt to avoid her now rather bizarre family.)

She greeted them with a wave, "Hi you lot! How did you enjoy your break with my insane relatives?"

"Er, it was…nice." said Hermione tentatively.

"It was terrifying, wasn't it?"

"Well yes." But before any other banter could be exchanged, the group was approached by Neville who seemed twitchy and rather paler than usual. "Hi, Neville. How was your Christmas?" Hermione inquired.

Neville jumped high enough to make an Olympic pole-vaulter proud and said in a rather high voice, "Uh, hello, uh, Hermione. My break? It was, uh, great." He squeaked before speeding away.

"Wonder what his problem is." said Hermione, her brow furrowing.

"He's been rather squeamish all year" Ginny replied knowingly, "Well guys I think I'll depart. I still have some homework to complete."

Hermione watched Harry play with his new finger puppet, an electrocuted version of himself as she reflected. It had been a very odd break indeed.

A/N: Wow, I got this chapter up fast. Yay! Well I hit the 10 chapter mark and I think I also hit 10,000 words. Double-yay! Well, that's about it. If I get loads of reviews it'll be another quick update. Fare thee all well!


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: Pokemon is like the coolest thing ever invented.

**Chapter 11**

The second term seemed to glide by to the seventh years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The N.E.W.T.s were almost upon them and they had to make up from the time they had blown off in first semester. Hermione and Draco had gotten no further in discovering the identity of the culprit, of course that could be because they hadn't been trying very hard of late for whenever they buckled down and tried to focus their minds began to wander to other, more pleasurable, matters, and so, they too spent their time preparing for the upcoming tests. Neither volunteered to help Harry study, deciding that it would be a pointless task, and figured he'd get O's on everything anyway.

One day, the trio was in the library, the two sane members buried in complex potions books (ever since the cookie dough incident Snape had given them almost twice as much homework as the rest of the class) and Harry was putting on a finger puppet alternative rock concert that would put Green Day to shame. Madame Pince had long since given up on attempting to stop Harry from performing his antics and was simply watching the show with obvious pleasure.

Suddenly, Draco sighed and surfaced from the dry text, obviously bored, and asked in an a tone that clearly stated he didn't expect an answer, "Hey Hermione, did you ever investigate within Gryffindor?"

Hermione rolled her eyes as usual at her friend's mistrust of the members of her house, but said, "As a matter of fact, yes I did, well in a way."

Her companion sat bolt upright, clearly not expecting this answer, "Well?"

Hermione nibbled on her quill thoughtfully, "Well, they're Gryffindors, right? So obviously they were all rather indignant about the whole matter and I had to convince them that I really didn't blame them, but I felt it was my duty to look into things."

Draco nodded and asked, "Any leads?"

"No, not really, I mean the Creevey brothers were fidgety as usual, Neville was a bit jumpy, but he's like that under any little bit of pressure, and Lavender Brown was kind of depressed and out of it, but she's never really been the same after Ron's death." Hermione concluded and went back to her notes.

Draco sat there for a while, running a hand through his silver-blonde hair and stared off into space, "When'd you ask them?"

"Over the Easter holidays." The witch mumbled without looking up,

Draco sighed once again; reflecting on how fast time had gone since Christmas.

Harry's concert ended to the wild applause of the librarian and Draco stood up, "I can't concentrate," he informed Hermione, "I'm going to head back to Slytherin."

"Righ'" came the vague reply.

Draco grabbed his bag and walked quickly out of the library. As he strode along the corridors, he reflected on the past year. He had become great friends with Hermione in such a short time and he rather enjoyed spending time with her. In fact, he realized, he appreciated her more than he ever had his Slytherin cronies. This epiphany triggered a new, somewhat alien thought, but before he could examine it, he connected rather painfully with a hard, stone wall. "Here already." He said to himself, still rather dazed, before proceeding inside and opening a book on Transfiguration without another thought.

In what seemed like far too short a time, N.E.W.T.s were upon the seventh years. All of them walked around in a rather tense state, reciting incantations under their breath to practice, this resulted in quite a few accidents, the least of which forcing a small second year to be rushed to the hospital wing in order to have a large running blender to be removed from his ear.

The examiners marveled at Harry's "natural" talent as he skimmed through the practical examinations with uncanny ease. He was the only one who managed to produce a perfect 17th century Gothic cabinet from midair in the Transfiguration final. (Hermione's examiner told her that hers appeared to be more French and Draco had to drag her out of the room before she started performing Unforgivables on the man.) In Defense Against the Dark Arts Harry did so well that his wizened old examiner burst into tears and shouted loudly that he had far surpassed the ability of Dumbledore and Tom Riddle combined. At the mention of "Tom Riddle" the entire room burst out into a mass panic and several bright purple fireworks had to be shot into the air before the test could continue.

Harry also passed the written exam with flying colors. At first, it appeared that getting him to sit still and take the test would be a problem, what with his need of making rather explosive noises every time something got too quiet. They had already had to evacuate the hall twice before Draco came up with the idea of bribing the crazed wizard with dog biscuits.

Draco rarely saw Hermione during the testing due to her obnoxious habit of running back to classes during breaks and getting down on her hands and knees to beg teachers to let her change "one itsy bitsy tiny microscopic little thing" on her test that, if left unchanged, could no doubt make her fail the test and therefore ruin all prospect of her and her prosperity's futures forever. "You'd think she'd learn by now." Draco said to Harry after Hermione had bolted off for the 7th time that day, "I mean, hasn't she tried that approach for the last seven years and still no effect."

In response Harry simply produced a chalice of Polish vodka and chugged it.

"Hey mate, can I have some of that?" Inquired the platinum haired wizard at his side.

"Booze for Draco!" replied Harry happily and handed over a crystal goblet.

"Hey, thanks!" replied the recipient, but when he went to take a swig, found that it was filled with only vinegar and spat it out all over Harry who giggled and stuck out his tongue.

At long last the testing ended. Since it had finished early on a Friday and the Hogwarts Express left the following Monday, they had the next few days free of classes. Like the rest of the school, Hermione and Draco were spending their freedom lounging on the grounds and watching Harry perform entertaining little charms on passing birds and flying bugs.

"Well it doesn't look like ole' Voldey will be attacking this year." Said Draco as a sparrow with antennae flew by.

"You can never be too sure, I mean-"she cut off and her tone became very stern, "Harry, disarm that creature at once!" she exclaimed pointing to a goldfinch with an AK-47 protruding from its scull. Harry changed it into a rubber-band gun and Hermione continued, "I mean, we still have the weekend."

"Yeah right, like he's going to attack in the next two days." Came the sarcastic reply.

"It's very likely since we still haven't caught Ron and Hagrid's murderer.

"Look, testing is over, we only have two days left, let's enjoy them, okay?"

A/N: WAHAHAHA! FORSHADOWING! Ahem, well yes as you can tell dear old Power of Insanity is drawing to a close. The next chapter will be the last one and then we'll have a brief epilogue and the tale shall come to a close. Sad, huh? Anyway, review and tell me who you think the culprit is, if you get it right I'll respond to you and give you a virtual pat on the head or something. Ok dokay. Ta ta for now!


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: Making raps for High School Musical is actually quite entertaining.

**Chapter 12**

Nothing could have prepared Hermione for the sight that met her eyes when she came down to the Great Hall the next morning. She had been walking along with Harry, thinking happily that in a few days she would be insane-wizard free, when suddenly she stopped dead. Every student and teacher in the Hall had been tied up using a magical form of electrical tape and was being held at wand point by masked Death Eaters. In fact, the only student not held captive was-

"Neville!" Hermione exclaimed. And sure enough, there was Neville standing next to a rather creepy looking Dark Lord, both grinning maniacally.

Neville looked up when he heard Hermione, "That's right, it's me! _Expelliarmus!_" Hermione's want flew out of her hand and clattered on the floor next to Lord Voldemort.

Hermione grimaced, "But why, Neville? Why did you betray us? You're a Gryffindor; you're supposed to be a good guy!" As she spoke she began to inch slowly, ever so slowly, toward the Gryffindor breakfast table.

"The Sorting Hat considered putting me in Slytherin, you know." There was a collective gasp and quite a few snickers at this explanation.

Hermione continued moving, trying to get the evil Gryffindor to keep talking, "Well that was unexpected! But, that still doesn't explain why…"

"The cookies! I did it for the cookies!" the entire staff and student body looked at him, each face reflecting the same utterly-confused-beyond-all-possible-reason expression.

"Go on, Neville," said the Dark Lord in an evil hiss, "Clarify things."

Hermione was about half-way to the table now and surprisingly no one had noticed her. All eyes were fixed on Neville as he explained, "My grandmother never baked me cookies!" he yelled with a slight sob, "Until the Dark Lord gave me one!"

Draco stared at him incredulously, "You ate a cookie that _he_ gave you? Neville, how dense can you get!"

"Quiet, fool! Yes, the Dark Lord gave me a cookie. It was the most wonderful morsel I had ever eaten; I would do anything for more, anything! That's right, _I _was the one who pushed Ron off the train, _I _was the one who prompted Harry to poke Hagrid off the tower, and_ I _was the one who, through Harry, tried to smother you all in cookie dough! And now, I have you all at my mercy!" he took a quick glance at the ultimate evil being he was standing next to and quickly re-phrased this last statement, "I mean _our _ mercy!"

Draco stared at him, "You betrayed us all _for cookies_!"

"Yes, oh and the promise of nearly limitless power that I wouldn't have been able to achieve here because you all thought I was a useless lump."

Hermione had finally reached the table. Her hand shot out and she grasped a dish of cold potatoes and flung them at Neville. The cold spuds crashed into his head and he was knocked unconscious.

The Dark Lord scowled, "I knew he should have tied you up, I just didn't want to interrupt his monologue. O well." Electrical tape flew out of his wand and hit Hermione, rendering her helpless. Voldemort then approached Harry, crimson eyes flashing wickedly, "Harry Potter is it true what they say about you losing your mind? Maybe that will make it easier for me to kill you. _Avada Kedavra!_"

Several people screamed at the flash of sickly green light, but the curse just melted when it reached Harry's magical barrier, leaving the wizard unscathed and still smiling, "Well that wasn't very nice!" he declared, "My friend told me that was a very naughty spell, and never to use it!"

But Voldemort wasn't listening, "What! How can that be? _Crucio! Imperio! Avada Kedavra! Inciendio! Wingardium Leviosa! Expelliarmus! Petrificus Totalus! _Heck, _Lumos!_" But all the spells just melted. "No! Why do you do this to me, Harry Potter? Why can't you just die?"

Harry was offended, "Well that's not very kind at all. I think we should teach you a lesson!" He sprinted over to a breakfast table and grabbed a pot of boiling coffee. He skipped back and thrust the metal container over Voldemort's head. The Dark Lord's scream was muffled by a nasty combination of the scalding liquid eating away at his face and the metal pot that blocked his breathing. He ran around in circles for half a minute like a chicken with its head cut off, making rather painful sounding gurgling noises. Several Death Eaters ran over to assist, but the pot was stuck on there and none of them risked firing spells in the fear of hitting their leader. All too soon, the Dark Lord gave a final shudder and fell to the ground.

"He's dead!" exclaimed one masked wizard after checking his pulse. All the students cheered as the black tape that was binding them disappeared in a puff of purple smoke and, along with the teachers; they all helped to tie up the now forsaken and confused Death Eaters to be shipped off to Azkaban.

"I still can't believe you defeated Voldemort with _coffee_." Draco was saying a few days later on the Hogwarts express a few days later.

Harry just took another drink of the double-shot espresso he was holding, a drink he had come to love dearly because of the funny buzzing it made in his head.

Hermione grinned, "Yep, that's our Harry!"

"I wonder if he'll ever be, you know, right in the head again." Draco mused.

"Dumbledore made arrangements for him to go to St. Mungo's; maybe they can cure him there."

Draco nodded. The rest of the trip passed in silence with all of them lost in their own thoughts. When the train finally stopped, they all exited onto the platform. Hermione gave her friend a quick hug before dragging Harry out into muggle London to meet the Aurors that would take him to the health facility. Draco stood on the platform a second longer, thinking. There had been a certain power to Harry's insanity after all.

A/N: Well there you have it, the last chapter! As I said, there will be an epilogue, which I sort of have planned out. If you have any questions about the story, any loose ends I still need to tie up, please tell them to me in your reviews and I will make sure to answer them in the epilogue. That's about it. Bye.


	13. Epilogue

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and am making no profit off this story. (Bet you were expecting something random and completely irrelevant, huh?)

**Epilogue**

Hermione leaned back in the arm chair that she was currently occupying, taking in the Malfoy's entire library from marble fire place to the overly large collection of Dark Magic books. Normally she would have disapproved of such a vast amount of dark books, but since her curiosity had gotten the better of her a few days back and she had opened one of the great tomes, finding that it was actually a fascinating read, she was more lenient towards the lot. Even now, the book _Avada Kedavra and More _rested open on her knees.

It had been about a month since school had ended and Hermione had returned to her parents' house for a quick visit. She planned on returning to Hogwarts later in the year to pursue her desire to become a teacher. It had been about a week into her visit when she had discovered that the Malfoy Manor was located only a few miles outside the small town in which her parents resided. She had promptly gone over to call on her friend. As soon as the greeting had been exchanged between the two, Draco had asked her out. Though a bit stunned, Hermione had accepted and they had been dating happily ever since.

During all this, Hermione had still managed to remain in touch with St. Mungo's. Apparently, using a form of muggle-brain surgery, they had managed to take down Harry's magical barrier and therefore could minister to his insanity and memory loss using magical remedies. He had slowly been recovering memories from his past life, but curiously, with every memory he recovered he lost one from the previous year. Hermione and Draco had already agreed on telling him that, though he wouldn't remember, he had defeated the Dark Lord in some no doubt heroic manner.

Draco, having no other ideas, had decided to enter the field of magical law-enforcement. Granted it had taken some effort to convince the Ministry that he was not planning on a mad attempt to return the Death Eaters to power, but once that was past he had began Auror training immediately. He had proven to be very good at his chosen profession and was already far beyond the normal place someone of his training should be.

Neville had received a fair trial for his crimes, though when he explained why he had joined the Dark half the court had cracked up and they had to call a short break so everyone could regain their composure. Shortly after, the trial ended and Neville had been sentenced to a lifetime in Azkaban. When interviewed, Neville had stated that the thing he regretted most was the fact that he would never devour another cookie (Light or Dark) again.

The Weasleys never did return to normal and were soon carted off to St. Mungo's after transfiguring the Burrow into a giant active volcano. They were put in a ward next to Harry's in order to help all patients hopefully return to full mental health. This seemed to help Harry greatly, but actually detracted from the Weasleys' recovery and they were quickly removed to a quieter section of the hospital after an incident regarding large squirrel shaped balloons that drenched everyone with chocolate syrup when they popped.

Voldemort's burial was a quiet affair. Not many people wanted to come due to the small fact that he had been the bane of the Wizarding World for countless years. But still, out of sheer respect for the dead, he was buried none the less. The gravesite was located next to his father's in the small graveyard that Harry had been transported to three years before. No one had seemed to want to remove the coffee pot from his head out of revulsion of what they would find underneath, so he was buried with it still fixed firmly to his skull.

The remaining Death Eaters had been put on trial and, as expected, some got off with the plea that they had been under the Imperious Curse. They had formed a small underground group whose focus was to return the Dark Lord's followers to power, and would no doubt be squashed in the years to come for none of them came remotely close to being the evil genius that there former master had been. But, they proved none the less that there would always be evil, no matter how pathetic, still lurking in the world.

Hermione rose from the chair, still thinking on all this. For what must have been the millionth time she thought of what and odd and unexpected year it had been. She headed for the door and walked briskly down the lane. Once again her heart leaped for the fact that the Dark Lord had finally been defeated. Thank god for coffee!

A/N: Well there you have it, The Power of Insanity, complete! I'd like to thank all of you who have stuck with me from chapter 1 and doubly thank all of you who have reviewed! I couldn't have done it without you guys and I'm eternally thankful. If you want you can check out some of my other stuff, mostly one-shots, but I just started The Wonders of Quidditch which will be a chapter story. K doke, well I believe that's it, thanks again, bye!

-Kyndeyrn


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